"the punks of wine."
call them 'unconventional', 'low intervention' or 'raw' — natural wines are causing a stir in cities worldwide. 'natural' (versus conventional) sounds kind of cool, with a ring of rebelliousness to it. some winemakers pride themselves on being terroirists. some like to call them the punks of wine. but below the hype, there's a deeper story to be unearthed.
winemaking, like all agriculture, rapidly industrialised during the second half of the 20th century. in the service of higher production, stability and consistent flavour profiles year over year, it became heavily reliant on fertilisers, pesticides, tractor tilling, machine picking, added yeasts, large quantities of sulphites, and various other chemicals.
as mass production became the norm of modern winemaking, "efficiency" became its motto. and "profit maximisation", of course. greed was good. with three-euro wines in supermarkets all over europe, consumption was democratised. finally, everybody had it all.
the winemaker's disease.
industrialised — aka "conventional" — winemaking means monoculture. lands that are vulnerable to erosion. vineyard workers who develop parkinson's en masse (a link that's recognised by the french government). wines containing glyphosates and other chemicals. that stinks a bit, now does it?
in the late 1970s, certain winemakers began to realise that this type of agriculture wasn't healthy. not for the workers being doused in roundup, nor for the soil — turning infertile and at times toxic — that has to feed the vines. and it definitely wasn't sustainable for the grapes: the one and only ingredient a wine should in fact contain.
in 1981, marcel lapierre made his first sulphite-free wine and became a pioneer of natural wine. he never looked back.
most vineyards in the natural-wine domain are small operations run by family, friends, and hired hands in harvest season. from the grape to the bottle, the entire value chain is transparent and centralised. that's unique in the world of processed food (and in manufacturing in general), where chains tend to be complex and opaque. natural winemakers — these individuals who are both farmers and creatives — know like no one else the effects of weather, the timing of picking, basically any intervention on their product. their sensitivity to subtle changes makes them the proverbial canaries in the coal mine of agriculture.
value the system, the system creates abundance.
these 'rebels' realised they needed to turn their vineyards into biodiverse ecosystems. they did away with the tidy, "bald" vineyards — mathematically straight rows of vines and a total lack of crop or flora diversity. instead, many adopted the biodynamic principles of rudolf steiner, or at the very least worked organically, certified or not.
they started to use the incredibly efficient design that comes built-in to nature: value the system and the system will create abundance. cover crops between rows of vines. trees and herbs growing in. sometimes animals grazing. working with nature's apparent chaos to pioneer earthbound means of growing grapes and making wine.
true: to the casual onlooker these vineyards may look messy, and the wines they produce may be cloudy and unfiltered. but most of all — they are alive.
this should just be normal.
it's only recently that things are changing. wines with nothing taken out and no added substances (except tiny doses of sulphite) are having their moment — all in the service of wines that truly reflect the terroir and the fruit that make up that life force. living wines. when you think about it, this should be normal. it's not cool. it's just common sense.
and sometimes sticking to common sense requires the single-mindedness of a visionary. or a rebel.
at the natural wine festival a'dam, we salute those wise, stubborn visionaries — the hard-working, hard-headed winemakers. we invite you to come and meet them, and of course to taste their wines with us on 23 november @ de hallen in the heart of amsterdam.
there's no global standard for "natural wines". the term itself can be discussed for days and is as helpful as it is futile. many winemakers who work biodynamically without additives have no desire to be categorised as 'natural winemakers'. so instead of debating too much about criteria — let taste guide you, and talk with the winemaker. hear how they work the land, and how they make their wines.